


Together

by etux



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 3.10 Update Fic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Communication, Episode Tag, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Post-Update Fic, Sleepy Cuddles, partially anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8161921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etux/pseuds/etux
Summary: And then the call is disconnected. Jack is left alone in his car, at the airport, staring at his phone, listening to the rain pounding on his car. There’s only one thing he can do.
   Jack starts the car. He’s going home.  Jack realises why his therapist hated that 'BE BETTER' poster. Also, he hopes the things he has to say are the ones that need to be said.[Stand-alone continuation to Stronger]





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm waaaay late to writing a yet another version of post 3.10 discussions, but I just had to write a happy continuation for [this fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8148724) I wrote right after reading the update. So. Enjoy? The angst is only at the beginning & only what we all knew from the update already. The rest is happier, I swear. There's even chirping involved.

“It’s just been a bad week and… I have to be _stronger_.”

This is the moment Jack’s heart breaks. Or it would be if his heart wasn’t still in his throat, ready to jump right out of him and _run_ to Bitty.

This phone call is Jack’s personal hell. It’s everything he’s been afraid of and _more_. Because is not Bitty only clearly suffering because of Jack’s career, but also _making himself responsible_ , blaming his own _feelings_ on somehow being _too weak--_

Wow. Jack thinks he finally realises why his therapist hated that ‘BE BETTER’ poster so much.

“Bittle.” 

Jack tries to put all he feels into that one word, because he has no idea what else to say at this point. Actions have always been easier than words, but Bitty is Samwell and it’s the middle of the night and it’ _s raining and Jack just got off the plane and -_ \- he just desperately needs Bitty to understand this _one thing_. 

“ _No_. You don’t.”

There’s silence, a one last sniffle, and a hoarse whisper:

“We can talk when we’ve both slept. _Night_ , Jack.”

And then the call is disconnected. Jack is left alone in his car, at the airport, staring at his phone, listening to the rain pounding on his car. There’s only one thing he can do.

Jack starts the car. He’s going home.

***

**Are you sleeping?**

4:46

**I’m outside.**

4:57

**Let me in?**

4:57

***

Bitty is wearing his shirt.

 _Bitty is wearing his Falconers jersey_ and Jack wants to cry. Out of relief or love or because of the fact that his boyfriend is just so _him_ \- Jack isn’t sure. But weren’t they _just_ yelling at each other on the phone about what Jack’s hockey career is doing to Bitty? And here he is, straight from bed, wearing Jack’s jersey.

Bitty. _Oh_ , Bitty.

Jack doesn’t have the words for this either.

“Bits.”

Bitty breathes out a soft _‘Oh’_ , and it looks like Jack isn’t the only one who wants to cry. They’re the perfect pair. Crying at five in the morning at the terrace of a college hockey team’s house. While it’s raining like crazy.

“Oh, _you fool_ ,” Bitty says and pulls Jack inside. “Oh my God-- You _did not_ drive here from the airport-- Jack, _it is five in the morn-_ \- What if the boys - - _for goodness sake -_ -”

“Bitty.” Jack interrupts his boyfriend’s rambling. He holds on to Bitty’s arms and hopes that this, _this_ will be enough. That for once what he has to say is what needs to be said. “You’re not doing this by yourself, okay?”

Jack takes a breath. He’s tired and soaking wet, but _this is so important_. This is what matters. _This_ , and not hockey, not his past or future, but this, _now_. It’s crucial Bitty understands that. _It’s crucial Bitty understands that - -_

“We’re a team.”

Bitty bites his lip and there are tears in the corners of his eyes, but Jack wills his heart not to speed up, not to break. He keeps still and refuses to even blink. He means this. He means all of this. He’s _all in_ and so, _so_ sure of this, and _-_

He wraps his arms around Bitty he breaks.

He holds Bitty and closes his eyes.

He was right. _Is_ right.

This is _it_.

***

Jack puts Señor Bunny carefully on the windowsill before sitting down on Bitty’s bed. He smiles at the small stuffed rabbit and straightens his appropriately small ears.

Bitty is across the room, going through his closet to find something dry for Jack to wear, and Jack’s heart is ready to burst. Burst, not break. Because _this night_ \- - that after everything that’s happened in the last twelve hours - - - the game, the phone call, _everything_ \- - he still _gets to have this_ \- it’s just so much.

“I love him, you know,” Jack says conversationally to Señor Bunny.

He doesn’t say anything back, but Jack is pretty sure he approves.

***

“‘night, honey.”

“‘night.”

***

“...we don’t _have to_ tell the boys.”

Jack sighs and opens his eyes to look Bitty in the eye. It takes a little while before he can see in the dark but once he can, he smiles and kisses Bitty on the forehead.

“I know,” he says, and then silences Bitty’s protest with his eyes so that he can continue. “We don’t _have to_ do anything. We don’t have to be together, we don’t have to make this work - but the point is that we _want to_. And since telling the boys is clearly something that needs to be done for this to work, _I want to do it_. Do you?”

Bitty is silent at first, and then full on sobbing into Jack’s shirt again. Jack waits for the sobs turn into sniffles before kissing his closed eyes and his tear-soaked cheeks. Bitty sniffles once more and then snorts. Hard.

“ _Christ_ , Mister Zimmermann,” Bitty laughs. “Haven’t you made me cry enough tonight already? You have to stop saying such nice and smart things. When did _you_ become so smart anyway?”

Jack grins unabashedly.

“Chirping already, eh?” Jack wipes Bitty’s cheeks with a corner of the blanket that’s over them. “If I had know that I’d just be _mocked_ , maybe I wouldn’t have driven here straight from the airport. _In rain_.”

“You would’ve.”

Bitty’s smile is shy, like he’s still not entirely believing that Jack is really here. Jack puts his hand on the back of Bitty’s head and gently pulls him in for a kiss.

“Yes, I would’ve.”

***

“So we’re really telling the boys today, huh?”

They are laying in Bitty’s bed, both too content to raise up just yet even though their alarm has gone off two times already.

“We’re are,” Jack confirms, burying his face in Bitty’s neck. He doesn’t sleep in very often, but he doesn’t stay up until six in the morning very often either. Besides, he’s in his boyfriend’s warm bed, with his warm boyfriend wrapped around him. Who wants to give up _that_ just to do something as trivial as _put on clothes_?

Suddenly Bitty snorts so hard Jack has to fear his boyfriend’ is going to choke for a minute. And the Bitty really starts laughing.

“Sweetheart,” Bitty manages to choke between giggles. “You sound like Shitty.”

It’s only then that Jack realises he had spoken out loud instead of just thinking his thoughts. He chuckles and blames it all on being half asleep. 

“Well he _is_ a genius attending Harvard Law, so…” Jack says. “There’s bound to be _some_ point in what he’s saying.”

“Oh so _that’s_ where your sudden smarts are coming from?” Bitty’s eyes are twinkling, and Jack can barely resist the urge to kiss him. “I _knew_ it wasn’t a Zimmermann thing.”

Why _is_ Jack resisting the urge to kiss Bitty anyway? There’s no reason for it. They’re together in bed in Bitty’s room, completely wrapped around each other. They are happy and laughing. They’re about to tell their friends about them.

They’re about to take their first real steps in a real relationship. They are making this work. Because they love each other and this important and they’re in this together together _together_.

Jack stops resisting. He kisses Bitty, just like he did months ago right across the hall at Jack’s graduation.

Only now it’s better.

Because they both _know_.

**Author's Note:**

> ([if you liked this fic, maybe reblog this on tumblr?](http://euseevius.tumblr.com/post/151095868981/together-were-a-stronger-team-oh-stronger))


End file.
